The 88027 Code
by KipperCat25
Summary: Eleven crimes have been committed in the past week. Captain Buggy has been spotted three times. Are they connected? And what's up with the mysterious notes left behind at every crime scene? Zoro is on a quest to find out and catch Buggy for the last time.
1. Background

Usopp picked the note off of the ground.

**THE 88027 CODE FOR A TREASURE**

"What's this mean?" Usopp called over the blaring of the sirens.

Zoro walked over. "You must be pretty stupid if you don't know what that means," he said.

"But what _is _the 88027 code?" he asked.

"It's pretty self explanatory," Zoro said, snatching the paper from Usopp. Then he walked away, back towards the police officers who were searching the ground for clues.

_It might not be evidence, _Zoro thought. _Maybe it's just a note someone dropped earlier today. _ But honestly, what were the odds of that? Who would really drop a note on the roof of a ten story building? And plus, hadn't there been another note just like this one dropped at every crime scene for the past seven days?

Zoro didn't know for sure, but he had an idea. It was probably Captain Buggy at it again. There had been eleven crimes committed in the past week. That was more than one every day.

Yet, he wasn't even completely sure that it _was _Buggy. No one had seen him in months. But Zoro thought that Buggy had committed the crimes because of something he found a few weeks ago. He had been surfing the net, looking at nothing in particular, when a headline caught his eye. It read, "_Captain Buggy Out of Hiding!"_

That was definitely enough to make him click the link and read the article. While reading, he found out that Buggy had supposedly been spotted in three different places, all around their town, Prudgeville. It was a medium-sized town with a large main avenue and many large businesses. Unfortunately, it was an out-of-the-way place, located an hour away from the next nearest town, Loover Bay.

Now the crimes had started. For some strange reason, Zoro had always been present when each crime was committed. Sometimes by himself, and other times with another crew member, like today. And at every single crime scene, there was a note left in an out-of-the-way place where only Zoro would look. Zoro thought that Buggy was doing that on purpose.

So he had collected all of the notes. Now he had a total of twelve, including this one. He had spent countless hours poring over the notes, trying to find some meaning in them. So far, he had been unsuccessful.

When he had told Usopp that the note was self-explanatory, he honestly had had no idea what it meant. He had just been trying to get Usopp off of his back. He didn't want to talk to him right now. He had too much to worry about.

At first, he had thought that the notes were a code, but after trying a few code keys he had downloaded off the internet, he gave up on that idea.

Then he had thought about the message part of the note. On each note, there was a number, always a variation of 88027, like 80287 or 07828, and a message. The message was always different. This time, it was "for a treasure". Last time, it was "to be popular". But the most prominent one was the first. It said, "The 88027 code to get your butt kicked". That was the only one of the notes that even sounded like Buggy.

Suddenly Zoro had a thought. What if it wasn't Buggy who dropped the notes? What if Buggy committed the crimes, but he had a sleeper hanging around the crime scene who dropped the note before fleeing? Zoro made a mental note to pay attention to the people next time.

For now, the only he could do was continue helping the police look for clues. But, turning around, he could tell that the police were pretty much done and were wrapping things up.

He had become friends with the police several years ago when he had moved into the neighborhood with his captain and the crew. Since there had been a burglary or something before they arrived, the police were guarding every entrance to the town, making sure no one left and that anyone coming in wasn't a suspicious person. The police chief had been helping guard the main entrance, where Zoro had been. He had noticed Zoro's swords, and wanted to make sure he wasn't a threat. They had struck up a conversation and had been friends ever since. Since then, Zoro had also met the rest of the police force. He could have been part of it if he had wanted to, but he was an independent guy, never one to sign up for "group activities" or anything where he had to help people all of the time.

None of the members of the Straw Hat Crew lived together. Zoro had suggested this as a safety precaution, and Luffy had agreed. So, they all spread out. The town was shaped like an octagon, so one of them lived in every angle.

Seeing that the police were leaving, he walked over to the police chief, Harold Prety. After shaking his hand and bidding him good night, he climbed inside and down the stairs. Then he began to walk home. Usopp, he presumed, had gone home earlier.

Zoro had done a lot of thinking since the crimes had started, and he was glad that he hadn't turned out the way Buggy had. Doing crimes wasn't his thing. Swordsmanship was.

Zoro smiled, his smile turning into a look of determination after he had another thought. He made a pact with himself that he would try his hardest to figure out what the code was and how to solve it, and also to catch Captain Buggy. It was his time to shine.

* * *

**For all of you who are wondering, Harold Prety's last name is not pronounced "pretty". It's actually pronounced "Prey-tee". **

**Anyway, this idea just came out of the blue. I was actually getting bored of just writing "Chopper's Worst Nightmare" every time I got on the computer, so I sat there until I came up with another idea.  
**

**Was it a good idea? I don't know. That's your job, to R&R.  
**


	2. Words from Numbers

**Wrote this in, oh, about 45 minut****es. :) I hope you like it!**

* * *

The next morning, Zoro was awakened by his alarm clock at 7:30. It was early, even for him, but he needed to get started with the notes.

He pulled all twelve notes out of his drawer.

**THE 88027 CODE TO GET YOUR BUTT KICKED.**

**THE 08287 CODE FOR FREE FOOD.**

**THE 27880 CODE FOR A COUPON.**

**THE 88027 CODE FOR FREE AUCTION TICKETS.**

**THE 88027 CODE TO GET PUT IN JAIL.**

**THE 80287 CODE TO MAKE S'MORES.**

**THE 88027 CODE FOR A LAPTOP.**

**THE 88027 CODE TO BE KILLED.**

**THE 27808 CODE FOR THREE KITTENS TO BE DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR.**

**THE 88027 CODE FOR A MONKEY.**

**THE 80827 CODE TO BE POPULAR.**

**THE 88027 CODE FOR A TREASURE.**

Zoro had no idea what any of them meant. The one that had worried him the most, though, was "for a monkey". He thought that the "monkey" was Luffy, so he immediately went over to Luffy's house to make sure he was okay. He was, but Zoro was pretty shaken up.

Zoro got his laptop from its case and booted it up. He went on the internet to look for free number and letter decoders. He had already tried several of these and given up, but now he figured it was the only thing that the code could possibly be.

He found a free decoder that looked like it might be able to do the job and hit "download". A minute later, he opened the program, typed in all of the notes, and hit "go".

A second later, a message popped up on the screen.

**DECODING FAILURE.**

Zoro sighed. It was the same thing every time.

Suddenly he had a thought. What if the words had nothing to do with the code at all and it was just the numbers that made a message?

Zoro got a pen and some paper and wrote down all of the numbers in the order that the notes were found.

**88027-08287-27880-88027-88027-80287-88027-88027-88027-27808-88027-80827-88027**

Then he typed all of those numbers into the system.

A minute later, another message popped up on the screen. But this time, it wasn't "decoding failure". It said, "Code detected of malicious origin which may release harmful spyware and/or malware into your computer's systems. Proceed?"

Zoro stared at that for a minute, uncomprehending. He was no computer genius.

But after a while he realized that it must mean that there could be a major virus in the code, and it wanted his permission to open it.

Zoro smirked. Computers these days.

He clicked "yes" and waited for the message to pop up. While he was waiting, he went out to the kitchen and made himself a bagel. He brought it back into his room and sat back down in front of his laptop.

The code was only 63% loaded.

He sighed, tapping his foot. Why was it loading so slowly?

A minute later, he found out. The code popped up on the screen, and all Zoro could do was stare.

The code was 127 pages long, with a font size of about 2. Well, okay, the font size was actually bigger than that, but it _was _really small.

Zoro couldn't understand how so few numbers could be translated into 127 pages of code. It just didn't compute with the way his brain functioned. It was completely illogical.

Shaking his head, he reached for the wireless mouse. He knew he didn't have nearly enough time to read all of it right now, so he saved it in a Word document.

Zoro didn't want to leave without knowing at least _some _of the information in that code, so he glanced at the clock and vowed to read the decoded message for thirty minutes. After reading the first line, he knew it was going to be a _long _thirty minutes.

_Orginizational corporation data failure backup systems compromised 1800 hours._

-x-x-x-x-

Thirty minutes later, Zoro was fast asleep in front of the computer, his half-eaten bagel on the table next to him. He had managed to stay awake for the first fifteen minutes or so, but it was just so _boring. _He knew he needed to hire someone or get software that could translate all of it so it would be easier to understand. Right now it was just mumbo jumbo.

Waking up, Zoro stretched, and then glanced at the clock. 8:12. He had three minutes before he would be late for training.

"Great," he muttered, rushing to change and get his swords. Master Stockholm was going to be really mad if he was late again.

A minute before he would be late, he grabbed his training bag and rushed out the door.

* * *

**So? How was it? This story has actually been fairly easy to write, a lot easier than I imagined. :)**


	3. Collecting the Words

Zoro ran in the door, huffing and puffing.

"Why are you late?" Master Stockholm asked.

He swore. "I was busy decoding a crime note, sir," he said truthfully.

Master Stockholm gave Zoro a weird look, disbelieving. But after seeing the true honesty in his eyes, or whatever people did to know that you were telling the truth, he decided to let it go.

"Join the session," he said.

Zoro nodded, accepting Master Stockholm's acceptance. Then he put his bag in his locker, walked over to his master, and assumed a fighting stance.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Three hours later, Zoro was exhausted. He had been beaten, battered, and bruised by Master Stockholm. That had definitely had not been his "A" game today. Probably because he was distracted by the code.

He picked up his bag from his rusty, light gray locker and walked out the door. He headed back to his house to continue reading the boring code.

-x-x-x-x-x-

As soon as he walked in the door, Zoro threw his stuff down on the kitchen table, made himself a snack of granola cereal and milk, and went into his room.

He placed his cereal down on the table and unlocked his laptop. Surprised, he realized that he had only gotten through half of the first page of code before he had fallen asleep. He sighed dejectedly and continued reading.

"…_Operation third-sense hound dog has been terminated, or so everyone_ _believes. No one has even seen suspicious persons around and about since 0330 hours June seventeenth. Although, police chief was spotted walking into a designated _supermarket _wearing his specified uniform from his working hours earlier. No one has been able to figure out why so far in our suspicious investigation. Judge decoy asks president of association why they haven't figured anything out and president says that no one in his working force is able to complete tasks quickly and efficiently."_

Zoro blinked. None of this made any sense. It just sounded like Buggy had typed in random words to confuse him.

_Wait, that's it! _He thought. If Buggy had been trying to confuse him with this, then the real message must be hidden in there somewhere.

He scrolled back up and reread the first paragraph. He got halfway down and realized something looked strange in the sentence he had just read. So he read it again.

"…_Although, police chief_ was_ spotted walking into a designated _supermarket _wearing his specified uniform from his working hours earlier…"_

That was it. The word "supermarket" was the only word in that paragraph that wasn't in italics. That had to mean something.

Zoro grabbed his notebook where he had written down the numbers and turned to a new page. On this page he decided he was going to write down every word in the code that wasn't in italics, and maybe it would spell out a message.

He took a deep breath. That was going to be a lot of reading. Then he had an idea. He had heard Usopp talking about how you could find a specific word or format in a whole page, or even pages of writing. So he decided to try that.

He remembered that to open the "find" toolbar you have to press the "control" key and then the "f" key. He did that, and a box popped up. There were two selections in the box. On the left, there was "word". On the right, it said "format". Zoro clicked on the one on the right, and another box popped up. It asked you which format he wanted to search for, and there was a box for him to type in. He typed in "italics" and hit "go". Every single word was highlighted, at least that he could see. He figured that the code words wouldn't be highlighted, since they weren't in italics.

Zoro was right. On that page, all of the words were highlighted in blue except one. He went to the next page and began scrolling down. He saw a blank spot in the code that wasn't highlighted and wrote that word down. It was "find".

Zoro sighed. At least he knew what to look for, but it was still going to be a _long _day.

-x-x-x-x-x-

An hour later, he had 36 of the words down. He had to admit, it didn't make much sense. Zoro had a feeling that once he did have all of the words, he wouldn't be able to rearrange them to make a message that made sense.

Zoro supposed he would have to hire someone to do that. Or, he could just use that decoder thing again, but there would probably be _millions _of results and he definitely wouldn't have time to go through all of those.

He stood to take his empty cereal bowl to the kitchen and locked his laptop. He knew the chances of anyone getting on it in the thirty seconds it would take him to get to the kitchen and back were slim, but they weren't impossible. He wasn't going to take any chances or make any stupid mistakes.

Zoro finished rinsing out his bowl and put it in the sink. Then he went back into his room and sat down in front of the computer again. He _really _didn't want to do this, but he knew it was the only way he would be able to fulfill the pact he had made with himself, to decode the code and catch Buggy.

He sighed and began scrolling again. He had a _lot _of work to do.

* * *

**As I said before, it has actually been fairly easy to write this story. I mean, _really _easy. I'm not sure why. But that's good, right? I mean, right? :)**


	4. Sentence Descrambling

Six hours and a _lot _of scrolling-down later, Zoro had finished finding all of the words and writing them down.

He looked at the clock. 5:20. Almost dinner time.

Zoro sighed. He stood from his swivel desk chair and stretched. Then he walked out into his tiled kitchen to find something to eat.

Zoro was a health freak. At least on weekdays. Those were the days that he had to train. But on the weekends, Zoro allowed himself to eat whatever he wanted. Just not _too_ much of it. He had to stay within a reasonable weight, like between 200-230 pounds.

He stepped on the scale placed smartly outside the kitchen. Every time he ate or even walked past, he was compelled to weigh himself to make sure he was at a healthy weight.

The scaled read 212.6. Zoro sighed with relief. He really didn't want to exercise more than he already did.

Walking into the kitchen, he scanned his cupboards. He had taken the doors off long ago to prevent unseen temptations. Just a little trick Master Stockholm had taught him.

His eyes stopped on a steak sandwich, but he shook his head and moved on. Today was Thursday. He couldn't indulge himself just yet.

Deciding to make some orange chicken and rice, his favorite food, he gathered the meals. All Zoro ever bought at the store were those RTA meals that you get in the military. They didn't take much effort to prepare, unless you wanted to heat them. Zoro always did just to prove to Nami that he at least put _some _thought into dinner.

Putting the meal in the microwave, he sat down at the table and tried to meditate. He never had been very good at meditating, especially after he joined Luffy's crew. Since then he had always been bothered nonstop, so he had never had the opportunity to practice.

Just as Zoro was getting into the deeper levels of meditation, the microwave went off.

He scowled and walked over to it. Then he opened the door, took his food out, and slammed the door shut again.

Sitting down at the table, he folded his hands and said a small prayer. "Thank you, Lord, for this RTA meal, and I hope you have a nice meal yourself."

Zoro had never been a religious person. But Nami had been bugging him lately, so he had tried a few of her tips. She had said that God was an all-seeing person who saw everything you did, good and bad. She also said that it was a good idea to thank him for the food that he ate, and to thank him before he went to bed at night.

Zoro thought thanking him at night was going a little too far, but he had thanked God for his meals every now and then.

A minute later, he finished his meal and went outside. Between 5:30 and 7:00 was Zoro's "thinking time". He used that time to think about his problems and what he could do to solve them.

He sat down on the swing underneath a maple tree and closed his eyes.

His thoughts were all jumbled up, so he used the first five minutes to sort them into categories. Doing this helped calm his mind for when he had to face his problems.

In the end, it all came back to Buggy. Well, except his and Nami's opinions on God. He believed that there was a God, but he didn't think he needed to voice his thanks. He believed that God heard every thought that went through his mind. Nami, however, believed that you had to pray to God to get him to hear you and know that you believe in him. She also believed that praying showed a connection to God.

Zoro shook his head. That thought was at the bottom of his list right now. At the top were things like "Buggy" and "Where is Buggy?" and "How do I catch Buggy?". Not stupid things like his argument with Nami.

He had no idea how to find Buggy. Unless there was a sort of global positioning system attached to him at all times.

Zoro chuckled at the idea. He would just have to wait until Buggy showed himself.

As for how he would catch Buggy… he had no idea about that either. He just had to hope that the police were there when he found him.

On second thought, Buggy could just use his Chop-Chop powers and release himself. Unless they managed to put him in a body bag or something.

The wooden slats underneath him were starting to get uncomfortable, so Zoro went back inside. He decided he would put all of the words into a "descrambler" sort of thing and read through all the millions of results.

He had decided that he wouldn't hire anyone for the sole reason that he didn't want to break his pact with himself. The pact said that _he _had to figure out what the code meant and _he _had to catch Buggy. No one else. Just him.

Sitting down at the computer, he opened the internet and typed "free sentence descramblers" into the search bar. There were 1,255,809 hits.

Zoro sighed. He didn't feel like looking through all of those, so he just clicked on the third one down.

When it opened, he could see that it looked reliable, since the ending of the web address was ".gov".

Huh. Funny. He had never thought that there would be a _descrambler _that was authorized by the government.

As he waited for it to download, he looked at the list of 127 words. He had no idea when he was going to find the time to read through all of the millions of combinations of those words. Especially when he had training with Master Stockholm five days a week.

The computer dinged, meaning that the descrambler had finished downloading into his system. He clicked "open immediately" and began typing in all of the words.

The only problem with that, however, was that Zoro was a _very _slow typist. He didn't even know how to type properly, and he only used two fingers.

He sighed. This was going to take a while.

-x-x-x-x-x-

An hour later, he finished typing all of the words into the software.

Zoro flexed his fingers painfully and glanced at the clock. 8:07. He still had a couple hours before his training schedule said he needed to take a shower and go to bed.

He clicked "go" on the descrambler and waited.

Zoro had originally thought that there would be millions of results, but after they all finished loading, there were only about 800,000.

Zoro scowled. Like _that_ made it any easier.

He began reading through the first one, which made no sense whatsoever. He moved on to the second one, and that one also didn't make any sense.

After about ten more paragraphs, Zoro was having a hard time staying awake. He decided that he would go to bed early and take another crack at it tomorrow.

He shut down his computer and went to get in the shower. He was going to need a lot of energy for tomorrow's training. Every Friday, Master Stockholm hosted "individual testing sequences" to see how much his students learned or improved that week. And those testing sequences were held alongside his regular training. So he had to go to a three hour session, then stay an _extra_ hour to complete the testing.

So he was kind of _glad _he was going to bed early. Maybe after all of the training he would still have a little energy left over to read through some more results.

Stepping into the shower, Zoro turned the hot water up and let it pour over his muscles. He had taken his master's advice and hired a massage artist to massage his sore muscles after training. But she only came on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. He still had to wait two days.

A few minutes later, he stepped out of the shower, dried off, and put his pajamas on. They were decorated with pictures of swords. His master had suggested this, too, to make sure he never forgot about his training. Like he could do that anyway. He carried his swords around _all the time._

Sighing, he folded down the covers on his bed and slipped in between the sheets, which were also decorated with swords. He rolled onto his side and fell asleep within minutes.

* * *

**This is definitely the longest chapter so far. I was originally planning to only have five chapters, but I'm not sure that's going to work out anymore...**

**Anyway, R&R! I would really like to improve my writing, and having reviews really helps, so...yeah. :)  
**


	5. Got It!

_BEEP BEEP BEEP!_

Zoro was awakened by his alarm clock going off.

He sat up and stretched. This time he would make sure he wasn't late for training, since he had that test thing today.

Zoro threw his covers off, stood, and got dressed. Then he went down to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast.

After staring at the cupboards for a while, he decided he would have a plain waffle for breakfast.

He made his waffle and went back into his room to boot up his laptop. He supposed he might as well read some more of those decoded paragraphs.

He sat down and took a bite of his waffle. For some reason, it didn't taste good at all, so Zoro just turned around and tossed it into the trash can.

Zoro opened the software and began reading. The first seven that he read made absolutely no sense. The eighth one, however, made a little sense. Some of the word combinations actually went well with each other.

_I must be getting closer to the _real _message, _Zoro thought.

But, knowing he had to go to training without being distracted, he powered down his laptop, grabbed his things for training, and headed out the door.

-x-x-x-x-x-

As soon as Zoro walked in the door for training, he knew he was in for a _long _day. Master Stockholm actually had swords in his hands and wasn't afraid to use them. Normally, he used his fists, but, since today was test day, he had probably decided to change it up a little.

Zoro groaned inwardly. If Master Stockholm was good with his _fists _against swords, then it wasn't a stretch to see how good he would be with _swords _against swords.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Zoro stood beside the water cooler after his lesson. Now he was watching everyone else get their lessons and waiting for his name to be called to take the test.

His nerves quivered. He really didn't want to take this test, _especially _because Master Stockholm had swords. He really didn't want to be injured anymore.

A minute later, Zoro had managed to calm his nerves enough so that when his name _was _called, he only jumped slightly. Thought he doubted that Master Stockholm didn't notice.

Shuddering inwardly, Zoro made his way over to where Master Stockholm was waiting and took up a fighting stance.

-x-x-x-x-x-

An hour later, Zoro was exhausted. He had tried to defeat Master Stockholm for what seemed like multiple hours, even though it was only one. As a result, he was covered with a bunch of little cuts and scrapes and a big slice on his upper right arm.

Sighing, Zoro grabbed his things and headed back to his house.

-x-x-x-x-x-

As soon as he walked in the door, at 12:10, Zoro immediately went into the bathroom to bandage his wounds. He had learned from experience that if he didn't bandage them, even the minor scratches, they would become infected. Something about "low immunity" or something like that.

After finishing with that, he headed to his room to continue looking through the codes.

He sat down and opened the software for the second time that day. He clicked on the one that he had left off on and began skimming through it, knowing that if he tried to read the whole thing, he would fall asleep, and _that_ wouldn't do him any good.

After skimming through a bunch of them, Zoro clicked back and picked one at random. He figured he had a better chance of finding the right one faster that way than if he read through every single one in order.

He picked the 786th one and skimmed through it. Nope.

912. No.

1739. No.

43738. No.

607128. No—wait. He read through that one in detail. It actually made sense, and it sounded like Buggy had written it.

He reread it again and nodded. Yeah, this was it.

Zoro clicked the "print" button and waited for it to come out. After it did, he decided to get to work right away, before the signs faded.

* * *

**What do you think the decoded paragraph said? And what are those mysterious "signs"? Take a guess! **


	6. Scavenger Hunt and Finding Buggy

Zoro ran through the streets of Prudgeville, his swords banging against his hip. He had to hurry. According to the message, Zoro had one hour after figuring out the message to find his way to where Buggy was hiding. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt, really. He just had to find the five marks, and then the fifth one would lead him to where Buggy was.

All of the marks were supposed to be on sculptures or statues or landmarks or something like that. The first clue read:

**"Around, around, around you will run!**

**But you'll never, ever find the house of fun!"**

That first one was easy. But after reading through the rest of the message, there weren't any more clues to be found. But eventually Zoro had figured out that there was probably another clue hidden at the site of the first landmark.

The 'house of fun' wasn't really a house of fun at all. It was a casino based on clowns. Everyone just called it the 'house of fun' as a joke.

A minute later, he arrived at the "house of fun" panting for breath. Now he had to figure out whether the next clue was on the outside or inside of the place.

Zoro read through the message again. Since it said that the clues could be on statues or sculptures, and you couldn't really put anything inside those, he decided to try the outside of the building first.

H e was glad he did. Apparently Buggy hadn't thought too far ahead, because the piece of paper was sticking out from in between two bricks, and it blew away before he even got to it.

After chasing after the paper down, he picked it up and read it. After he was finished, he groaned.

**"That was pretty easy, wasn't it?**

**Bet you'll never find the Coupe de Vit!"**

"I really need to hire a navigator," Zoro muttered.

"What was this about a navigator?" Nami asked.

Zoro sweat dropped. "Uh…nothing," he muttered.

"Are you lost again, Zoro?" she said, coming over to him.

"No…" he said, unconvincingly.

Nami sighed. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"Uh…the coop dee vit?"

Nami gave him a weird look. "You mean the _Coup de_ vit," she said. "And why would you want to go there?" she shuddered.

"None of your business," he stated, since he didn't even know what it was in the first place, anyway. "Just how do you get there?"

Nami shuddered again. "You go east for a minute, then turn west onto St. Claires Street, and then—"

"Just tell me left or right!" Zoro said, annoyed.

"Well, okay," she said, skeptical. "Write this down. Left until you get to the purple house, then right until you see a big sign, then right again until you reach the house with all the cats—wait. You know where that is, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," Zoro said, scribbling furiously. "Everyone knows where the cat lady lives. Continue."

"After you get there, you turn left and it's right there. I mean, _right there. _Don't run or you'll crash right into it."

"Yeah, whatever," Zoro said. "Thanks. Bye!" Then he zoomed off to the left.

After a minute, he saw the purple house, and turned right. He was running for a while, and was starting to get worried that he had passed up the sign, when he saw construction up ahead. He slowed down to see what they were doing.

Looking around, he saw that there was a big sign laying on the ground next to a big truck.

Zoro made an irritated noise. He would have to yell at Nami later.

He turned right and ran as fast as he could. At least he knew where the cat house was.

Zoro checked his pocket watch. He had already wasted ten minutes. He sighed.

He reached the cat house and turned right, looking for the building, when _BANG_—he crashed into a wall.

Zoro swore, rubbing the golf ball sized bump on his head. Nami had been right. Then Coup de Vit was _right there. _

Looking at the building, Zoro understood why Nami had been so upset. It was a scary looking building, really. It was painted black, but the paint was peeling off and rained down every time there was a gust of wind. The wooden shutters were rotted and falling away, leaving just scratched glass windows. It looked like a haunted house.

He realized that it wasn't a wall that he had crashed into; it was the sign for the place. But the wall was a good two inches away from the sign. He didn't even think it was legal to build a building a foot from the edge of a corner.

Zoro read the sign out loud. "Prudgeville Nuclear Power Plant (Coup de Vit)".

Well, now he understood even more why Nami didn't like this place. But he was surprised that he hadn't noticed it before. He had often walked past the cat house and never saw this building. But, it was a nuclear power plant. Strange things could happen there.

Zoro walked around the outside of the building for a while, trying to find the note, but he was surprised when he had gotten all the way around the building without seeing it. Then, remembering something, he turned back.

The note was written on the wall in chalk, or so he thought until he got close enough to see. When he did realize what it was, he gasped.

It was written with radioactive glow-in-the-dark powder.

Zoro shuddered. He backed away as far as he could while still being able to read it.

This note didn't rhyme at all. It read:

**"Scary, isn't it? Well, look closer. The next clue is by your left foot, at the library."**

"Uh oh," Zoro said. "I don't know how to get to the library from here."

_Wait, _Zoro thought. _If I just retrace my steps to the casino, then I'll know how to get to the library!_

He sprinted off again.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Zoro arrived, out of breath, at the library. The library was where Robin liked to spend her time, reading books on history and archaeology.

He read the clue again. What was he supposed to do, just walk around staring at the area around his left foot the whole time?

Zoro looked down at his left foot. It seemed so innocent.

He chuckled at the thought.

Then he noticed a piece of paper sticking out from under his left shoe. How Buggy had pulled that one off, Zoro hadn't a clue. He bent over and picked up the paper, reading it in his head.

**"Ha! Two left! The next one's even harder! Find the place that makes cheese!"**

Zoro chuckled. Buggy really did think of the strangest places to stick clues.

He pulled out his pocket watch. Only twenty minutes left! He had to hurry.

Zoro knew the general area where the cheese factory was, but he had never been there. So he asked a random passerby for help.

"Hey, you!" he called to an elderly man walking down the street. "Where's the cheese factory?" He was still running and was about to pass up the man.

"Over there!" the man pointed to his right.

Zoro mentally face palmed. _Duh! _He thought. There was a big sign that stretched two hundred feet into the air advertising the cheese factory. And everyone knew that the factory was right underneath the sign.

"Thanks, dude!" he called.

-x-x-x-x-x-

When he arrived at the cheese factory, he almost passed out from exhaustion. But he knew he had to stay focused. Today was the day he fought Buggy for the last time.

This clue, Zoro had the feeling, would be harder to find than the rest, considering that the cheese factory, the actual _factory, _not the shipping dock, was located a hundred feet in the air.

He ran to the ladder that went up to the factory and tripped, banging his head against the ladder and getting another golf ball-sized welt on his head.

When he looked to see what he had tripped on, he started. There was another clue laying there.

Zoro picked up the next clue and ran in a random direction, hoping it was the right one.

**"The last clue is simple. It leads to a note that leads to my location. Find your way to the station."**

Zoro swore. The police station was in the _complete opposite direction _that he was running in! He put on the brakes and turned around.

To the average passerby, Zoro probably looked like a crazy man who had escaped from a mental hospital. But he didn't care. He had fifteen minutes to get to the fifth clue and to where Buggy was hiding.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Arriving at the police station, he rushed around, needing to find the clue. He finally found it sticking out of the mailbox. He read it and was about to take off when he had an idea. He walked into the station and asked for Sgt. Prety.

When he came out a minute later, Zoro told him about Buggy, the clues, and gave him the final note. The sergeant just nodded and told Zoro to go.

Running out of the building, he ran towards Luffy's house. The note had read that Buggy was hiding just outside the wall on the upper right quadrant of the town, and that was where Luffy lived. But Buggy had come back inside today to face Zoro for the last time. He was supposed to be hiding in Zatu Park.

Zoro had told Sergeant Prety to get a small group of officers and follow him and provide backup if he couldn't defeat Buggy. They were also there to arrest him and put him in jail for the last time.

Even with his recent successes, Zoro was still mad at himself for breaking his pact. He had said that _he _would defeat Buggy and _he _would put him in jail. Not anyone else. But Zoro had asked Nami and the police officers for help.

_Oh well, _he thought. _At least it took me less time to find him._

Reaching Zatu Park, Zoro slowed. He had no idea where Buggy was hiding in the park, and it was a fairly large park. He unsheathed his swords.

"Looking for me, are you?" A voice said. "Well you're a little late. You took 65 minutes."

Zoro frowned, determined. "Come out and fight me, you coward." He raised his swords defensively.

"If you say so," Buggy answered, somewhere off to his right.

A finger tapped his left shoulder, and he turned. When he did, a sword slashed his right arm.

Zoro whirled around just in time to see Buggy's arm retreating into the trees to meet up with the rest of his body.

Zoro gave chase. He couldn't afford to lose this battle.

* * *

**Pretty good, eh? This is a fun story to write. **

**Note: Coup de Vit is not a real thing or place. It's just something random I came up with that means "Nuclear power plant" in some made-up language.  
**


	7. Back to Normal

Zoro could see Buggy up ahead, preparing for battle.

He had to end this. "ONI…GIRI!" Zoro yelled, rushing at him.

His swords made contact, slicing Buggy clean through. But Buggy just laughed, and the pieces of his body reattached themselves.

"You'll never defeat me!" he said.

"Oh, yeah?" Zoro readied his swords.

"BARA BARA FESTIVAL!" Buggy shouted, his body turning into little chunks.

However, as Zoro noticed, Buggy's feet stayed on the ground. He grinned. An opportunity.

But as soon as he started moving towards Buggy's feet, the little chunks of Buggy started swirling around him, making it impossible to move forward.

Zoro swore. "Think that'll stop me?" he taunted.

Suddenly, the pieces of Buggy's body started pummeling Zoro at high speeds, making him grunt. So, in order to defend himself, Zoro started swinging his swords around at an extreme speed, effectively creating a shield against the chunks.

Slowly, Buggy's feet became visible. Zoro grinned, walking towards them while still keeping up his 'sword shield'.

Buggy realized what was happening and tried to reform, but not fast enough. Zoro plunged one sword into each of Buggy's feet, effectively pinning him on the ground.

Buggy continued reforming, and Zoro scowled. It would be really hard for Zoro to keep him pinned there for any amount of time after he finished reforming.

Luckily, though, the police squad arrived at that time and took over. Zoro removed his swords from Buggy's feet and retreated to a nearby tree to clean them.

A minute later, Sergeant Prety came over to him. "We managed to keep him from escaping, thanks to Usopp's new invention," he said.

Zoro looked up. "And what's that?"

"Handcuffs that are immune to devil fruit users."

Zoro nodded. It was definitely something Usopp would've come up with.

"You're hurt," Prety said, motioning to Zoro's arm.

Zoro shrugged. "I guess."

"Do you want me to get some bandages to fix it up?" he asked.

It was there that Zoro struggled. He was used to saying "no" to everybody's offer of help. It had been that way for years, ever since he became a swordsman. And he wanted a scar from Buggy, to prove he was stronger than him. But, Zoro knew that if he didn't get the wound to stop bleeding, there were going to be problems. He sighed.

"Yes, thank you."

Even Sergeant Prety seemed surprised, but he didn't say a word and walked away.

Zoro sighed again. Finally things could go back to normal.

He jumped. He thought he had seen a flash of something in the trees. He stood.

Suddenly, Luffy burst out of the trees, first aid kit in hand.

Zoro blinked and slid back down to the ground, back against the tree. Things would never be normal. Especially with Luffy being around.

"Need some help, Zoro?" Luffy asked, motioning to Zoro's wound.

Zoro shook his head. "Sergeant Prety went to get bandages already," he explained.

Luffy pouted.

Zoro sighed. "You can bandage half, and Sergeant Prety can bandage the other half," he allowed.

Luffy grinned and opened the first aid kit.

Zoro took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He had been through a lot in the past few days, and he deserved some rest.

Suddenly, Zoro had a thought. His muscle massager was supposed to come today. He smiled. Things really _were _going back to normal. He glanced at Luffy. Well, as normal as they could get, anyway.

* * *

**THE END (kinda)**

**Yeah, it's over. Sad, isn't it? But don't worry. There's plenty of other stories you could read...*winks*  
**

**Anyway, I don't think this chapter was the best, but I'm just not good at closing chapters.  
**

**THE END (for real this time)  
**


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